For those who are already RNs, you’ll need to gain the appropriate amount of perioperative experience. If you aspire to become a CRNFA, you’ll need to hold a bachelor’s degree if you don’t already have one. For instance, a surgical nurse with only one year of experience may start at around $28.83, whereas someone with more than ten years of experience can earn upwards of $35.00 to $36.00 per hour. Some hospitals may treat scrub and perioperative nurses slightly differently; the scrub nurse may be solely responsible for sterilizing and “scrubbing in” the surgical team. On the other hand, the perioperative nurse might only stand in as an assistant during the operation. The following tables provide the percentage of exam questions for each Patient Problem and Domain of Nursing Practice areas.
Working as a certified medical surgical nurse is also a great possibility and this will entitle you to enjoy around $62,000 to $127,000 yearly. The board estimates it takes practicing nurses about six to nine months to prepare for the medical surgical certification exam. Working with experienced nurses can help you understand the concepts you’ll need to successfully earn these valuable credentials. Exact education standards for a Med Surg nurse depend on the facility or hospital. In most cases, nurses must obtain a two to four-year degree in nursing and pass appropriate examinations to start a nursing career. A Med Surg nursing career may require additional courses during nursing education.

Similar to other careers in nursing, the annual salary usually increases with years of experience. Before you can sit for the CMSRN, you’ll need at least two years of clinical experience as an RN. You must also have at least 2,000 years of practice within the last three years in a medical-surgical setting. The exam can be taken in a paper and pencil (P&P) or a computer-based testing (CBT) format. The P&P exam is offered nationally in May and October, and twice a year at symposiums. The CBT exam is offered year-round during a 90-day testing window at more than 250 sites.

Medical-Surgical Nurse Resources

For example, consider advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), a step above the mandatory basic life support (BLS) all RNs must know. The health care industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, and registered nursing is the largest occupation in the health care industry. Medical-surgical nursing is the largest professional specialty in the registered nursing occupation, according to the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses. To discuss a med surg travel nursing career with a recruiter, simply complete the form at the bottom of this page. The salary for a medical-surgical nurse varies based on experience, location, and other factors.

Or do you work in a healthcare organization and find yourself thinking that there must be better ways to deliver health care? Course content includes an overview of health care delivery including healthcare consumerism, the patient’s… In this course, you’ll learn the foundational economic theories behind health care innovation and how to optimize your own health care practice or organization.

What is Medical-Surgical Nursing?

The MSNC Board exists to establish credentialing mechanisms for validating proficiency in medical-surgical nursing. Some hospitals will require that a nurse complete a med surg internship or mentoring program before starting on the medical surgical floor. When searching for job opportunities, you might ask about these types of requirements.
Pressure injury affects more than 2.5 million hospitalized patients each year in the U.S. (Agency for Healthcare…. Healthcare professionals witness the impact on patients’ quality of life and also see how hard it is for peopl…. Once your request to schedule your exam has been approved, you will receive your authorization to test (ATT) in a second email. The medical-surgical nurse exam must be taken within the next 90 days.
Certifications can be a powerful tool to show employers you know your stuff. Pass your upcoming exam with Pocket Prep or we will provide you with three additional months of access to Premium Prep for free. It only requests these certificates if it selects your application for audit. If selected for audit, you must submit copies of your certificates at that time.
There are a total of 150 multiple-choice questions on the Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Board’s (MSNBC) paper-and-pencil exam. The computer-based exam can be rescheduled within 90 days free of charge if the candidate reschedules more than 15 days in advance of the scheduled exam. Applicants who reschedule 6 to 15 days before the exam will be charged $25. You can’t reschedule the exam within 5 days of the date it’s scheduled. Applicants must pay an additional $79 non-refundable late fee for applications submitted after the certification expiration date. After applying to retake the exam, candidates may receive their ATT either the same day or up to 3 days after submitting their application.
The Skills questions will evaluate your therapeutic communication abilities, and the Knowledge questions will evaluate your understanding of nursing ethics. The final tests are then sent for in-house testing where the tests are passed on to various candidates who take the test and check it’s usability and accuracy. This helps in providing us with honest feedback’s and suggestions in designing enhanced tests. To begin, there is a price difference between the ANCC version and the one that does not lead to the Registered Nurse-Board Certified (RNBC) credential. Additionally, you must have worked at least 30 contact hours every three years to qualify.
UWCNE fosters mentoring relationships between medical-surgical nurse experts and participating healthcare providers, and develops a peer learning and support network. Test Setting
To apply to take the exam, visit the ANCC or MSNCB website. Both the RN-BC and CMSRN exams are offered at Prometric testing centers. Once you receive authorization from the credentialing organization to take the test, you can register with Prometric for an exam time that is convenient for you. In short, the ANCC exams are a great choice for generalized credentials and have widespread appeal.
You must prove that you’ve remained in medical surgical nursing practice by documenting at least 90 patient contact hours. CNE topics in medical surgical nursing focus on a myriad of topics, given the broad specialty of med surg nursing. Topics that med surg nurses can typically find in med surg CEUs include patient restraints, complication prevention, UTIs and oral antibiotics, clotting disorders, and more. There are different roles for nurses in med-surg depending on the nurses’ educational background and experience. Many med surg nurses work in acute care hospitals, and as a med surg RN, they provide care for patients throughout the hospital.
In the Southeast, the hourly average was $35.01 per hour and in the Midwest is was $43.27. In the Western United States, Certified medical-surgical nurses earned average wages of $44.80. According to the University of Buffalo School of Nursing, you can expect to check on your patients and their vitals before you move on to any paperwork.
The average salary for a med surg nurse is typically higher than other nursing jobs and they are often employed in acute care hospitals, healthcare facilities, and nursing homes. The ANCC medical surgical certification exam has 150 scored questions on a range of topics relevant to the work of nurses in the surgical setting. These include subjects like assessment and diagnosis, the evaluation of planning/implementation/outcomes, and the professional role of the Med-Surg nurse.
A passing score for the Medical-Surgical Nurse exam is a 95, which means you must answer 71% of the questions correctly. To become Medical-Surgical Nurses certified, you will need to pass a Medical-Surgical Nurse certification exam. Mometrix Test Preparation is your secret weapon when it comes to preparation.
Medical-surgical nursing is practiced in a variety of settings throughout the healthcare industry, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, homes, telemedicine, and other non-traditional settings. Certification allows med-surg nurses to demonstrate their knowledge as subject matter experts in medical-surgical nursing practice. Med-surg nurses are the largest group of practicing healthcare professionals in the acute care setting.

Your knowledge of nursing ethics, including evidence-based practice and advocacy, are evaluated in this domain. The surgical tech prepares the patient and the operating room for surgery. However, surgical techs are not registered nurses, so they do not have the ability to work in departments outside the operating room.
The range of conditions that med-surg nurses may encounter makes med-surg a challenging and dynamic specialty. Med-surg nursing can be a great fit if you don’t want to be limited to a specific type of care. Patients stay on the med-surg floor when they have any medical concern that needs hospital-level monitoring but not specialized care. That means that all patients who aren’t staying in units such as the intensive care unit (ICU), cardiac care unit (CCU), or any other specialized units will be cared for by med-surg nurses. Becoming board certified is a voluntary process that requires consistent evaluations of a nurse’s professional knowledge and skills. While a nurse who is not board certified may possess basic entry-level skills, he or she may not have the specialized skills and experience to adequately provide expert care.
Med surg is a specialty in which RNs provide comprehensive care for patients and their families. Med-surg nurses work in the general units, known as med-surg units, in hospitals. They monitor and care for patients recovering from surgery, serious illness, an emergency-department stay, or patients who don’t need specialized care. That means that almost everyone who is admitted to a hospital will be cared for by a med-surg nurse at some point during their stay.
The exam allows 3 hours to answer 150 questions (125 scored plus 25 pretest questions that are not scored). You will learn the principles of nursing and how to deliver appropriate patient care. However, if your goal is to one day work alongside surgeons, you’ll need additional training to prepare for work in the operating room. The typical workday for a med surg nurse focuses on the needs of the patients. In a med surg nursing job description, you may notice that you will need to focus on checking the health of your patients. So, after going into the medical facility and talking to the nurses on the previous shift, you can expect to spend time checking in on your patients.
Obtaining this credential supports your clinical practice and prepares you to offer excellence in patient care. As with all Aceso’s courses, our CMSRN exam review program is designed by nurses for nurses.. Brainmeasures free medical surgical nursing certification practice course is definitely beneficial for you if you dream of becoming one of the most renowned experts in the medical surgical nursing industry. This free practice course is one of the most impressive offers of Brainmeasures apart from all the comprehensive and professionally developed online certification programs that the company provides. With this, you can easily establish a strategy which will bring you towards getting a passing rate. You’ll need to meet some standard requirements no matter what school or degree path you chose.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that registered nurses made a median annual salary of $81,220 in 2021. Your specific salary as a med-surg nurse will depend on factors like your experience, education, certifications, and specific employer. To sit for the credentialing examination, you need to hold a current, active Registered Nurse (RN) license in the United States and its territories or the equivalent license from another country. If you already have a non-nursing degree and would like to pursue a nursing career, the direct-entry MSN program or accelerated MSN nursing program is an option. The curriculum will prepare you to work as an RN with a master’s degree or pursue post-graduate certification to become an advanced practice nurse (APRN). Research the program requirements because some are designed for students with a BSN, and some are structured for those without a nursing background.
In this field, nurses provide direct care to patients in acute care hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical settings. Med Surg nursing certification requirements depend on the medical facility or hospital. In general, students must obtain a Certified Medical Surgical Registered Nurse, or CMSRN, certification from the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses for their career path. This medical surgical nursing certification differs from the traditional registered nurse certification because it specializes in medical surgical nursing.

What Are The Options to Become a Med-Surg Certified Nurse?

The MSNCB official website offers a strong insight into the pros and cons of each type of certification. Both credentials are valid for five years, and both require at least two years of experience as a Registered Nurse before you can take the exam. However, there are some differences that could factor into your decision. Promote excellence in nursing by enabling future and current nurses with the education and employment resources they need to succeed.

If you want to become an effective medical surgical nursing expert, then you have to consider enhancing your set of knowledge and skills in all aspects related to adult health. You need to have excellent technical, prioritization, organizational and assessment skills. You also need to know how important it is to constantly measure and improve your delivered health care services quality. It is essential for you to prioritize the safety of your patients first while identifying their best interests when it comes to health.
This growth is due to an aging population, advances in medical technology, and an increased focus on preventive care. Medical-surgical nurses are also in demand in home health care, nursing homes, and outpatient settings. If you work best when you have set routine and do the same tasks at work each day, med-surg nursing probably isn’t for you.